Old Lyme man charged with possession of child porn

A 20-year-old Old Lyme man who admitted to investigators that he was “obsessed” with collecting sexual images of minor boys pleaded not guilty to first-degree possession of child pornography when he was presented Monday morning in New London Superior Court.

Robert D. Buttrick of 3 Wood Ridge Hills Road had posted a $50,000 bond following his June 27 arrest. Investigators said they found 5,578 images files and 248 video filed of suspected child pornography in his possession.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, the state police Computer Crimes Unit began investigating after receiving information on its CyberTipline that a representative of Dropbox Inc., a file hosting service, notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children of suspected child pornography from an account associated with the username johnnytt and an Internet Protocol address in Connecticut.

Troopers learned the IP address was registered to Comcast Cable Communications and obtained a court order to identify its owner. They obtained a search and seizure warrant in January and searched the Buttrick home with assistance from the Old Lyme Police Department, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and FBI.

Buttrick, who was home alone when the authorities arrived, initially denied tht he had created a Dropbox account but eventually admitted he had been viewing and trading child pornography for about 1½ years, according to the affidavit. He said he began viewing child pornography to see how he “measured up.” During a polygraph examination, he admitted he had become obsessed with collecting child pornography, knew it was wrong and tried to stop. He said he sought out Russian file sharing services because there was a lot of material available there, according to the affidavit. He said he never had sexual contact with children.